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Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president, will announce her vice presidential running mate sometime in the next week, holding their first joint rally in Philadelphia next Tuesday.
After that rally, the two candidates will appear together in six additional swing states — Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.
It’s unclear as yet who the vice presidential nominee will be. Several names have been suggested, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
But the two top contenders appear to be Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Shapiro may be the most likely of the two, especially since Harris has selected Philadelphia as the city she will debut with her running mate. The Harris campaign has also been urging Wall Street donors to write checks ahead of an important fundraising deadline that regulates the donations to state, not federal, officeholders.
However, a Harris campaign aide, speaking to Politico about the matter, cautioned against reading too much into the site selection. (Philadelphia, in addition to being in a swing state, is a site of significance in U.S. political history.) Harris herself has indicated to reporters as late as Tuesday that she has “not yet” selected a vice presidential nominee.
New polling indicates that 8 in 10 Democratic voters are happy with Harris becoming the presidential nominee following President Joe Biden bowing out of the race in July. Harris’s vice presidential pick has the potential to attract or alienate key blocs of Democratic-leaning voters.
Kelly, for example, is a former naval pilot and astronaut. He is also a supporter of gun reform, as his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was a victim of a mass shooting in 2011. As a popular senator from Arizona, his selection would undoubtedly help sway voters in that state toward supporting Harris for president over her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, who barely lost the state to Biden in 2020.
But labor unions have expressed concerns about Kelly, who is one of just three Democratic senators (or those who caucus with them) who has not yet endorsed the PRO Act, a bill that would make it easier for workers across the U.S. to form labor unions and win contract negotiations with their bosses.
“Why would the Democrats even consider a senator for the vice presidency if the senator doesn’t support the PRO Act? It’s the most important piece of national legislation workers have right now,” John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, recently told ABC News.
Shapiro has similar strengths as a popular politician from a swing state. He has executive branch governing experience, and supports many progressive policies, including reproductive rights and expanding access to health care.
His stance on Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, however, which has killed around 40,000 Palestinians so far (with some researchers estimating that the true death toll is as high as 186,000), is likely to alienate pro-Palestinian voters, who Democrats cannot afford to lose in such a narrow election. Unlike some of his Democratic gubernatorial colleagues, Shapiro has refused to issue a call for a ceasefire in the region. His office has also taken a draconian stance against students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with Shapiro urging universities to raid encampments on campuses in Pennsylvania where students were calling for divestment from Israel’s genocide.
“Choosing Governor Josh Shapiro for Vice President would be a mistake,” progressive leader and former Ohio state lawmaker Nina Turner said last month, noting that Shapiro “compared pro-peace protesters to the KKK.”
“That’s simply unacceptable an would stifle the momentum VP Harris has,” Turner warned.
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